Revelations on The Book of Revelation

When a person of rare integrity and sound education feels such a compelling urge to accomplish a certain piece of work that she will devote eight years to the task, the rest of us may well pay heed to the finished product. Such a piece of work is this book by Winifred MacCardell Flood. In it, a reader or student who loves the Bible and is sincerely seeking an awakened consciousness may find a revelation that brings new understanding. And to those who have never read the book of Revelation because they found it too difficult to understand, her book should bring enlightenment. It seems that in every period of time some listening ear hears what is thought to be the revelation of Eternal Truth and it leads and instructs many until further consciousness has been attained. Such was the work, for example, of Meister Eckhart of the 13th century and Jacob Boehme in the 16th century. It is my conviction that in these new "Revelations" we are being given a similar light in and for our day and age. Mrs. Flood's book is not an easy one to "review" in the usual sense. Rather, it should be read so that one may participate fully in the self-discovery and inner illumination which it imparts. The author's interpretations, which come largely from a pains-taking-study of Hebrew and Greek texts, stresses a God of goodness and love rather than one of war, destruction and vengeance. The book presents a graphic description of the extreme vacillation of man's feeling-the tug-of-war as he reaches for his Divinity, then becomes discouraged at not attaining it at once. The Book of Revelation has far too long been treated as a strange and foreboding book filled with dire prophecy. Mrs. Flood declares that the great book is prophesying but not in the sense that such and such a war shall come to pass in this year or that . . . that depressions and desolation will occur in this or that time. Rather, she tells us, it is saying in every chapter and verse that "the calamity in your mind, the depression in your soul, the war in your spirit must express in your life and in your world as physical, mental and spiritual desolation." This interpretation holds that the allegorical writings of the original have been set down in code, so to speak, not to hide from us but to preserve for us the Eternal Truths which man so carelessly overlooks. The great original, she states, says over and over that there is only One Power in the universe and that each one uses that power constantly and inevitably; how one uses it, and for what purpose, will decide his failure or success, his discontent or happiness. I find this a book well worth reading, pondering and studying in all humility. There is an amazing truth herein revealed, a truth which can lead to the discovery of the True Self, can lead to a better philosophy of life, and that fuller, more joyous and abundant life for which all mankind seeks. -Laura M. Hyer, D.S.B., review in Winter Park Topics, February 26, 1954